Title page for ETD etd-06292005-171700

An Investigation of the Relationship between Teaching Perspectives and Faculty Development Activities among Faculty in Higher Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Department

Human Resource Education Workforce Development

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name

Title

Geraldine Johnson

Committee Co-Chair

Krisanna Machtmes

Committee Co-Chair

Earl Johnson

Committee Member

Michael Burnett

Committee Member

Amelia Lee

Dean's Representative

Keywords

faculty development

higher education

teaching perspectives

adult education

Date of Defense

2005-06-15

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the teaching perspectives, teaching preparation, previous teaching experiences and involvement in faculty development activities among faculty from a research extensive university in the southern United States. A simple random sample of 536 was drawn from the institution's faculty and total of n=131 (24.4%) responded to the survey.

Respondents were asked to complete the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) via the internet and complete a survey which included questions regarding demographic variables, teaching preparation, previous teaching experience, and involvement in faculty development activities.

The majority of respondents were male (n=91, 70.0%), held a doctoral degree (n=119, 91.5%) and had earned tenure (n=82, 62.6%). A majority of study respondents (n=95, 72.5%) had one dominant teaching perspective. Five (3.8%) had two or more dominant teaching perspectives and 31 (23.7%) had no dominant teaching perspectives, as measured by the Teaching Perspective Inventory.

The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) procedure was used to determine if dominant teaching perspectives were discipline-specific, using the academic college or school of the faculty member's teaching appointment for grouping purposes. The results of this analysis concluded that a significant difference existed among respondents with "Apprenticeship" as a dominant teaching perspective (F=2.036, (12, 118), p=.027).

A majority of the respondents (n=91, 69.5%) reported that they had completed a course or training session on teaching, while about three-fourths (n=98, 74.8%) had served as teaching assistant during graduate study. The Pearson's r correlation coefficient was calculated to determine if a relationship existed between the dominant teaching perspectives of the faculty and their participation in on-campus and off-campus faculty development activities. Results of this test indicated no statistically significant difference between the two variables.